Ex-assistant Fire Chief Suing Over Taped Calls

July 18, 1998|By THOMAS D. WILLIAMS; Courant Staff Writer

A former Hartford assistant fire chief, punished as a result of racist and anti-gay comments he made in home telephone conversations allegedly intercepted by another firefighter, is suing the city and several other news organizations, including The Courant.

The lawsuit, filed in Hartford Superior Court on behalf of Billy L. Smith by Hartford lawyer Albert J. McGrail, suggests federal law prevents not only interceptions of telephone conversations, but dissemination of the conversations to those not party to them.

Smith is asking for more than $15,000 in damages, the required minimum for Superior Court.

Besides the city, the lawsuit names Mayor Michael P. Peters, a host of other city officials, the firefighters' union, The Courant and four television stations that produced stories on the tapes.

McGrail said sparse case law from other courts around the county supports his contention that news outlets can be sued for receiving tapes or transcripts of illegally recorded conversations from others, and publishing or broadcasting them.

Constitutionally protected free speech rights and the media's right to disseminate accurate information already in the public realm are typical defenses against similar lawsuits.

A police investigation of the intercepted July 7 and 11, 1996, conversations between Smith and a fellow firefighter, Vincent Graves, has been ongoing since October 1996. To date, no arrests directly related to the interception of that conversation have been announced.

But in February, police arrested one of three suspects in the case, Hartford firefighter James McLoughlin, 34, of Bloomfield, who works out of Engine Company 16 in the Blue Hills section. McLoughlin was arrested on unrelated charges of eavesdropping on firehouse phone conversations. The arrest came after a monthlong investigation into complaints that he was using advanced electronic equipment to secretly listen to firehouse phone lines.

McLoughlin, who has been on the force since November 1994, had since been fired from his $36,000-a- year job.

The controversy over Smith's telephone conversations in July 1996 led to his demotion and, according to McGrail, his eventual resignation from the department on April 9, 1997. The circumstances surrounding the resignation have not been made public.

The conversations between Smith and Graves, both of whom are black, occurred shortly after Smith was promoted to assistant chief, and included talk about finding ways to promote or hire more black firefighters and rewarding black firefighters who stand up to white firefighters with physical force.

According to the tapes, transcripts of which were anonymously supplied to some media outlets, Smith was quoted as calling some firefighters ``faggots,'' ``white boys'' or ``Clarence Thomas [the U.S. Supreme Court Justice] Negroes.''

The tapes further polarized an already factionalized department, according to firefighters. An outspoken anti-Smith faction demanded his firing, while Smith supporters and others called for an investigation into the taping.

``The city intends to prevail on the merits in court rather than trying the case in the newspaper,'' he said.

Before the lawsuit was filed, Scott Brady, secretary and treasurer of the Hartford firefighters union, denied the organization had any role in the tapings. Several months ago, union officials acknowledged that they received, transcribed and gave to city officials the tape recording of Smith, but they denied being involved in the actual taping.

Paul Lewis, news director of Channel 61, Tom O`Brien, general manager of Channel 30, and Billy Otwell, news director of Channel 8, and Brian Toolan, editor of The Courant, declined comment, citing the fact that litigation is pending. Paul Virciglio, general manager of Channel 3, said although Smith sued the Meredith Corp. owning the station, it did not own the channel when the broadcasts in question occurred.